I'm getting too old for rock concerts

[Captain Chaos]

These are some of the shows I've been to this year. Only 2 more and I'll be done.

 

[FugaziBomb]

I started off as a kid going to and playing at punk shows, so to me smoking a cigarette, standing in your seats, (who needs seats?), talking too loud - all that stuff seems par for the course of a rock show. The whole reason I liked going to shows was because of how dangerous it was. Mosh pits were dangerous, stage diving was dangerous... it was all kind of thrilling, especially for a young kid. Now, I'm older and more tame and the shows seem way more tame, too. I don't hear about people getting stabbed, fights, etc at the local shows like I used to.

It's safer, and I get it... that's cool and all. I understand people want to share the experience of a concert with their kids, but not everything needs to be made safe for kids. A rock and roll show isn't a place for kids; It should be a place for misfits. At least that's how I see it, but that's based on my background of getting into punk rock at a young age.

 

[CryingBass]

So this is how the history of quality live music ends?

In that regard, I'm glad that I am old enough to have seen many dozens of excellent shows in the past with minimal hassles.

Ok, many of them were Jazz/Fusion. Is that a tell?

 

[RedJag]

I don’t like arena shows usually. But smaller venues are nice. I had a blast seeing Royal Blood a month ago, and I’m seeing them open for Queens of the Stone Age a couple times later this year. The key is to get GA at a small venue. Otherwise I usually don’t bother.

 

[Passinwind]

I remember an epiphany I had in the mid-70's when I realized the difference in sound from the nosebleed seats at Madison Square to going downtown to a club and being 15 feet from players like Steve Gadd, Richard Tee, Will Lee etc, game over.

Yep. I went straight from MSG to Carnegie Hall for back to back shows one night in the early 70s and the die was cast. Didn't take long to migrate primarily to the club scene after that, especially since that's where my favorite acts have mostly always tended to play anyway.

 

[BigKD]

Why go through all that BS if you have the internet and disposable income?

If I want to see a huge rock show, I can stroll down the hall to my climate controlled recording studio and enjoy pristine audio/video with reasonably-priced beverages and plush seating. No 120db tinnitus-inducing sound systems, driving on the highway, police, fighting for $30 parking, $15 beers, cigarette smoke, and no getting punched in the face by ungrateful drunks.

I thought I might be going mad when I dropped 10k on my Barefoot studio monitors and built an army of 12" deep bass traps, but the amount of enjoyment I have gotten out of this setup is priceless. Between Youtube, torrenting, and my personal collection, there is an endless supply of HD concerts/musical events without the BS and hyper-inflated pricing.

This is exactly why live music is dying.

BTW...the super accurate studio monitors allow me to make informed judgements regarding gear/instrument purchases. They don't lie. If something sucks, I will find out quickly...They end up SAVING me money lol.

 

[StatesideRambler]

I miss the experience of seeing a performer or two in concert but I gave up bothering with big concerts decades ago. I just tired of adults proving they could be children, too. Club shows and jams suit me fine.

 

[petrus61]

I can fix the idiots at concerts problem.

Cheaper beer inside the arena. Seems counter intuitive, I know. The problem is this. Beet inside is $19.95 plus shipping and handling. The dipsticks who simply HAVE to have a buzz to watch a show will get stumbling drunk for a $20 case of PBR. In fact, they want to get drunk enough for the drunk to last the whole show so they can avoid paying a ton for a beer inside. They always forget the part about being drunk turning them into idiots.

Now, if a beer were $5 inside there would be less tailgating going on. AND once they get to their seats, many will think of it as too much hassle to go buy beer. So they drink less. Less drunk people. Cheaper beer would actually amount to fewer idiots.

Nevermind the amateurs who are a-holes when sober, let alone have disposable income to buy as many $17 tall boys as they want. People who drink are gonna drink, inside and outside the venue.

 

[JES]

My wife and I still go see shows, but if we are paying a lot, it had better be a smaller venue with good sound. Last show like that was King Crimson. Great show, I think we paid $100 a ticket. We saw Price's last tour. We regularly go see independent and local (original, not cover) bands. Rock and jazz and some electronic. We are usually happy we went.

I don't see the point in a stadium concert: the sound is usually bad and I can't see the band, and it costs extra. I know people like the copresence but I'm too much of a music nerd for that to be enough. i don't think I've been to one in over 20 years at this point.

Weirdest venue was P-Funk in a parking garage. This was right before their careers bounced back in the 90s.

 

[superdick2112]

We saw Yes last weekend. It was way too loud, and the sound was really muddy. I'm thinking that'll be my last concert.

And for my next band, I think I'll find a couple of acoustic guitarists, and I'll play acoustic bass...

Yes, I've turned into my mother. Now get off my lawn!

They came through Denver last night, & now after reading this thread, I don't feel so bad for missing the show...

 

[Spectrum]

I've never been to a Rush concert, but aren't they much better than most other concerts in terms of audience behaviour?

Rush fans are fairly tame. Recently, they tend to be older, too.

No.

Yeah, maybe you should stay home if a Rush concert is too rowdy.

I started off as a kid going to and playing at punk shows, so to me smoking a cigarette, standing in your seats, (who needs seats?), talking too loud - all that stuff seems par for the course of a rock show. The whole reason I liked going to shows was because of how dangerous it was. Mosh pits were dangerous, stage diving was dangerous... it was all kind of thrilling, especially for a young kid. Now, I'm older and more tame and the shows seem way more tame, too. I don't hear about people getting stabbed, fights, etc at the local shows like I used to.

It's safer, and I get it... that's cool and all. I understand people want to share the experience of a concert with their kids, but not everything needs to be made safe for kids. A rock and roll show isn't a place for kids; It should be a place for misfits. At least that's how I see it, but that's based on my background of getting into punk rock at a young age.

I agree, a rock and roll show is not Disney Land. When I started going to shows it was a given that 4 out of 5 people were smoking, the place was filled with weed haze, and nobody at the show was over the age of 30. Dealing with crazed idiots isn't a problem when you are one of them and that's all that's there to begin with.

But it comes with the territory of aging, I suppose. If you were a teenage rock fan in 1977 you are now in your 50s. You probably have more disposable income, and you have kids you want to share the experience with. Whatever band you saw in 1977 is now a bunch of guys in their 60s, no longer the cocky young scofflaws they once were. Add to this stupid high ticket prices and you have a right to expect more civil behavior from the ignorant trashy pillock in the seat next to you.

The solution is to go to smaller venues and watch younger bands. That's the only way to really enjoy a good show that doesn't look like a Chuck E. Cheese.

Of course, the problem of horrible sound is another issue. Apparently many sound guys think good sound consists of nothing but kick drum and mud. In my experience this is hit or miss. Some shows sound great. I saw Slayer recently at a medium-sized indoor venue and the sound was amazingly clear. Most big outdoor shows are awful-sounding.

 

[DukeLeJeune]

Rush fans are fairly tame. Recently, they tend to be older, too.

About a third of the arena rock shows I've been to were Rush concerts, and I can't think of a single bad experience at any of them... well, aside from all us old guys lining up for the bathroom... and it's not like you can take a bathroom break DURING the drum solo and still consider yourself a Rush fan...

Yep. I went straight from MSG to Carnegie Hall for back to back shows one night in the early 70s and the die was cast. Didn't take long to migrate primarily to the club scene after that, especially since that's where my favorite acts have mostly always tended to play anyway.

Ime the actual musical experience is FAR better in a small venue where the band really cares about sound quality (and not just quantity).

 

[Tom Howland]

I tend to stay away from large concerts now. ( I did see the Dead & Company in July ) Which was very cool. But I'm happy in small clubs.

 

[squidtastic]

Primus show a few months ago.

As soon as I saw "Primus", I knew it wouldn't turn out well . Way back in the 90s, I saw them at a relatively small venue. I was up front staring at Les' hands. Of course, moshing ensued, and I got tired of it, so I walked away from the stage to join my friends who were seated. As I'm walking away from the stage, some worthless tool who was just standing there (I was past the moshing) just shoves me really hard. I yelled (since it was loud), "I'm going back there!" (I pointed to the seats.) This idiot shoves me again. I then try to push past him, and some other piece of s*** punches me in the back of the head. It was bad enough that these tools were doing this, but it didn't even make sense since I was getting out of their way.

Shortly after that incident, I decided to get into jazz -- true story!

 

[Passinwind]

Ime the actual musical experience is FAR better in a small venue where the band really cares about sound quality (and not just quantity).

My first real live sound mixing mentor worked for a few extremely well known bands and he used to talk a lot about wanting to come mix my very humble dive bar band just because it would be so much more rewarding.

 

[LanEvo]

I'm spoiled, since I've been living in lower manhattan for a long while now. Get to see even big-name acts in relatively small venues. I can't stand arena shows. Theaters and clubs are much more fun.

 

[squidtastic]

View attachment 2745248

Had to quote this pic. Something about the guy in devil horns with the overweight, disinterested stage hands below just cracked me up.

 

[GregC]

I'm 54 and have been to a lot of shows in the past 40 years. I have two reactions to this thread.

1. Huge shows have always had a lousy track record, IME. Sound is usually bad, prices are almost always higher (counterintuitive, kind of), and both the sheer number and the percentage of wasted d-bags is usually far higher than at small shows. I typically avoid these like the plague. I'm happy to say, though, that my two recent stadium/arena shows have been good to really good: Adele last year at the United Center was excellent, partly because I got lucky and scored fantastic seats when tickets went on sale. But Adele also put on a very strong show with a solid band. The only negative was a group of young ladies next to us who got yappy during the acoustic mini-set. And less than two weeks ago, we saw Green Day at Wrigley Field. Didn't have great seats for that, but they weren't bad and the sound was pretty decent. The band itself was quite good, other than excessive ploys to generate cheers. Both experiences were far better than seeing the Who in a football stadium in 1982--the musicians were barely visible, the sound sucked, and the B-52s opened and got a shoe thrown at them.

2. Some of y'all might need to open your ears a little and get into non-zillion-selling acts who can play smaller venues and charge lower prices. So far this year, other than Green Day, we've seen the Drive By Truckers (at the Vic, holds about 1000), Wilco (at the Chicago Theater, holds 3600), Vulfpeck (at the Metro, 1000), Adrian Belew Power Trio (Old Town School of Folk Music, 450), Meat Puppets and Mike Watt (at Lincoln Hall, maybe 400), the Hold Steady (at the Empty Bottle, probably 300), Elvis Costello and the Imposters (at Northerly Island, which is big but doesn't come close to selling out, so it's a pretty relaxed atmosphere), Postmodern Jukebox (Northerly Island), the Roots (Northerly Island), and the Woody Goss Trio (at the Tonic Room, about 200).

Coming up in the next 2 months: Jason Isbell at Red Rocks, Craig Finn at the High Dive in Gainesville FL, Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets at Lincoln Hall, and Our Lady Peace at the House of Blues.

That'll be 15 shows for the year. Only three of them cost $50 or more per ticket, and none went over $85 per.

 

[mikewalker]

I'll gladly shell out for tickets if Little Richard comes out of retirement. Otherwise, I have had my fill, thank you very much...

 

[RumblinThunder]

"Hell is other people"